Medi-Pot Rally in San Jose Expected to Draw Hundreds

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LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 19: Dave Warden, a bud tender at Private Organic Therapy (P.O.T.), a non-profit co-operative medical marijuana dispensary, displays various types of marijuana available to patients on October 19, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. Attorney General Eric Holder announced new guidelines today for federal prosecutors in states where the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes is allowed under state law. Federal prosecutors will no longer trump the state with raids on the southern California dispensaries as they had been doing, but Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley recently began a crackdown campaign that will include raids against the facilities. Cooley maintains that virtually all marijuana dispensaries are in violation of the law because they profit from their product. The city of LA has been slow to come to agreement on how to regulate its 800 to 1,000 dispensaries. Californians voted to allow sick people with referrals from doctors to consume cannabis with the passage of state ballot Proposition 215 in 1996 and a total of 14 states now allow the medicinal use of marijuana. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Medical marijuana advocates will gather outside San Jose City Hall today starting at noon in a rally to protect cannabis access.

Members of the medical cannabis community organized the protest as a way to draw attention to tonight's San Jose City Council emergency meeting to address regulations on dispensaries and patients' rights.

Among the protesters at the rally will be members of the San Jose Buyers Collective, Pharmers Health Center Cooperative and Union Local 13.

Protesters say the the rules City Council will consider at their meeting will limit the options for medical cannabis patients and open up their private medical records to police and other city officials.

A representative for the group says up to 500 people are expected at the rally. The SJCBC has organized a Facebook page in an effort to spread the word about the event. More than 165 people had replied and said they were attending the rally as of about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.